So I took a little trip to Ecuador and for logistics reason signed up with a travel company and went as part of a group by myself. Now whenever you do this you never know just what kind of group you are going to get and whether you are going to get along with them and of course how they are they going to feel about having "a gay" in the group. I've taken several of these tours before and for the most part it's always been surprisingly a non-issue since there is a pretty broad cross-section of folks who go on these tours. The common bond is that you are pretty much trapped in a country that doesn't speak English and at the mercy of you tour guide who may or may not be talking smack about you to their fellow countrymen as you bus your way from one city to the next. It kind of brings people together who probably would never normally interact with each other if they lived in the same place.
When I travel alone one of the things I internally debate about is when to reveal to people the whole gay thing. Normally I just try to avoid human contact if at all possible but when you are sitting on a bus for 3 hours driving from God knows to where to what are we doing here it gets a little boring and those who don't want to sleep want to chat with you instead. For the most part when people have found out they have been generally accepting or at least non-plussed about it. Now that's not to say my fellow tour mates are not talking crap about me behind my back--but at least when we are face to face they are pleasant, regardless of their personal views.
On this trip we were about 3 days into it before one of the retired/divorced/widowed/single--women on this particular trip started to chat me up. (These kind of tours tend to draw a lot of the mature set) Thus I let drop the fact that no I was not single and that my partner, a guy, was back at home in San Francisco. I think it took less than a day for this info to spread to the rest of the group. Once the information got out I prepared myself and "girded my loins" as they say to get ready for the inevitable "oh I know a gay person too story" that these retired/divorced/widowed/single women love to share with me when they find out so they can show me just hip/comfortable/non-judgemental they are. Usually they like to share these stories at oddly inopportune times or when you are trapped and have nowhere to go or get away. Like say a trek through the jungle rainforest--and let's call her "Sal".
We are about half way through our jungle hike when Sal, who's slowly been inching her way to the back of the group where I'm hanging and taking pictures, grabs my arm and says "Ya know. My boss Bill and his partner Jim are just a lovely couple. After my recent divorce I had this old refrigerator I wanted to get rid of and Bill and Jim, a lovely couple, said they would take it off my hands. Well, one weekend, Bill was out of town on business so Jim said he would come over and pick it up. So Jim shows up with his brothers pick-up truck. So we are standing there looking at the fridge and looking at each other and finally I say how are we supposed to get this on the truck? And Jim just looks at me and says Oh honey I don't know I'm not the butch one! And then we just laughed and laughed. Ahh....they are such a lovely couple." And with that it started to rain and Sal flipped up the hood on her pink poncho and went back towards the front of the group. Leaving me to roll my eyes and cry up to the rainforest gods WHY WHY WHY!
I understand why they feel the need to tell me these things. They want me to know they are ok with who I am, but let's face it, it's really more for them so they can feel they are with it and not like those other prejudiced folks because they know a gay. In the beginning it used to bug me a little bit (I mean if I heard one more story of how someones favorite bartender left them so they could move to San Francisco and be themselves) but now I figure if I can broaden someones horizon just a little bit maybe we can break down those subtle prejudices that people have and maybe they will go back to where they come from and tell their friends a story about that "lovely gay guy" who was on their tour and so on and so on.
Answer to previous posts trivia question: Fellowship of the Naked Trust in Thana India 1891
This posts trivia question: Ecuador is nestled in what mountain range?
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